Chris Paul, Clippers come to Game 2 with an attitude

Andy Holzman / Staff Photographer
The Clippers' Jamal Crawford tries to fire up the crowd during Monday's playoff game against the Golden State Warriors. The Clippers rolled to a 138-98 victory.

It happens so rarely that Chris Paul isn’t on top of his game, even Doc Rivers isn’t quite sure of the internal reaction when it does.

That doesn’t mean Rivers can’t tell within moments of bumping into Paul what kind of game he’s coming off.

In that regard, the All-Star point guard is pretty much an open book.

“Very focused,” Rivers said. “Very hard on himself.”

So yeah, it was an introspective Paul who showed up at the Clippers practice facility Sunday, still seething from the loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the Western Conference playoffs.

It was an intensity that was immediately apparent in Game 2 Monday, from Paul right on down to his teammates.

And the result was a masterful performance in which the Clippers pummeled the Warriors with a 67-point first-half flurry, then kept throwing hay-makers until their Bay Area rivals finally threw up the white flag.

We have a series, folks, and after the Clippers’ dominating 138-98 victory, they head up to Oakland an emotionally changed group after exorcizing the demons that tormented them in the mismanaged final minutes of Game 1.

“We’ve shown all year long that we can bounce back,” Paul said. “I think we showed that, when we play with force and aggressiveness and we play together, what we’re capable of.”

Paul, grimacing a bit from an aching hamstring, wasn’t his usual explosive self while scoring 12 points with 10 assists, six rebounds and five steals, but he set an emotional tone that the Clippers fed off.

It was angry and agitated.

But it was also remarkably focused.

“We made a focus that we had to play with more intensity,” said Clippers forward Danny Granger. “We came out in the first game; we had that intensity, but we really couldn’t sustain it the rest of the game.”

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They sustained it on Monday, with Paul’s aggravated response to the loss in Game 1 creating a vibe the rest of the team fed off.

Paul doesn’t swallow bad performances all that easily, so there was a healthy amount of fury leading up to Game 2 — most, if not all, directed at the face staring back at him from the mirror.

“Typical Chris,” Rivers said.

Maybe even a little too hard on himself for Rivers’ taste, although he’s willing to give him the benefit of the doubt before stepping in with some counsel.

“I don’t know Chris well yet, in that,” Rivers said. “I’m learning, as this year goes on, that when he has a game he doesn’t like, he gets real hard on himself, and I don’t know if I like that or not, yet, to be honest. That’s something I’ll have to find out. That’s ... I don’t know yet with that.”

Needless to say Paul’s disposition all day Sunday after his very apparent struggles in Game 1 was anything but sunny.

And that usually means a tough day for his Clippers teammates, who typically feel Paul’s wrath on those rare occasions he’s beside himself with himself.

“He doesn’t have a lot of those games, when he isn’t great. But when he does, you know it,” Rivers said. “What I do like is the team knows it. Because that next practice or shootaround, he’s tough. In a good way, and I actually like that. He’s a tough, tough kid in a very positive way.”

It’s an turbulence that typically has a trickle-down affect on the rest of the Clippers, so no surprise it was a surly bunch that hit the floor Monday against the Warriors.

An anger that manifested itself in various forms.

The lack of trust offensively from their Game 1 loss had no carryover 48 hours later, their unwillingness to make the extra pass replaced by crisp ball movement that typically resulted in wide-open looks.

And plenty of made baskets.

“We were more ourselves,” said guard Darren Collison.

The offensive flow had a multilevel affect, the good vibes helping to re-engage the Clippers defensively.

And that was a dramatic change from Saturday when some of the Clippers checked out on defense by spending too much time worrying about what was happening — or in this case not happening — on the other end.

If there’s one thing Rivers hates, it’s a player who lets his defense falter because he isn’t happy offensively, and he saw entirely too much of that happening in Game 1.

“I thought our offense hurt us. I thought it hurt us in our transition defense. I thought it got us in a lot of trouble,” Rivers lamented. “What I don’t want, and I think this happened, I thought our offense took away our energy defensively and I never want that from our team. And I thought it did the other night. I thought we were struggling offensively and it leaked over to our defensive effort because we were thinking about our offense.”

And he wasn’t happy.

“I’ve talked about that to them all year. I hate when that happens. It does happen, and it happened the other night. There was a few individuals who let up defensively because they were struggling offensively and that ... we have to avoid that.”

Those concerns were immediately eliminated by a spirited Clippers effort that put a stranglehold on the Warriors, who managed just 33 points deep into the second half and fell behind by as many as 21 points.

“Tonight it was all about defense,” said Blake Griffin.

For anyone worried the Clippers would cave upon collapsing over the final minutes of the stunning loss in Game 1, their breakout performance to begin Game 2 alleviated all concerns.

If there is such thing as a must-win this early in the playoffs, it was Monday. The Clippers could ill-afford to head to the Bay Area down two games against a Warriors team that thrives on the passion of Oracle Arena.

So yeah, Monday was a must-win.

“I don’t shy away from that, because I think that every night,” Rivers said. “But I always laugh at the must win because, if you win, is the next one a must one? And if you lose, is the next one a must win?”

Who knows.

But the way the Clippers played Monday, they sure weren’t interested in find out.